Kelso Mountain, Torrey's Peak, Gray's Peak

Kelso Mountain 13,164'
Torrey's Peak 14,267 via Kelso Ridge
Gray's Peak 14,270

October 13, 2018

An early winter storm hit Colorado last week so Laura and I decided to head for an area we are both familiar with. Kelso Ridge is a fun scramble in summertime but with snow can become tricky and a bit spicy pretty quickly. The weather was forecast to be sunny with light winds on Saturday so we knew there was no rush for a predawn start! Parking at the upper trail head for the standard walk up route to Gray's Peak, we started hiking at 7:30 am with a plan to only do the ridge and have a relaxing day out.
Just before the turnoff to the ridge, we decided that since neither of us had stood atop Kelso Mountain before, we should make the side trip over. It was deceiving how far the actual summit was from where we decided to turn off, but after wandering along the ridge for a bit and several false summits, we found ourselves atop the peak with a sign that read "These are the days we will never forget"! True statement and we were happy with our decision to add on this peak for the day.

Kelso Ridge headed up Torrey's Peak

Leaving the summit, we traversed down the entire connecting ridge toward Torrey's Peak and found the start of the "advertised" Kelso Ridge. There were two groups in front of us, but moving steadily, we quickly passed them and began breaking trail and finding the best way to work around the snow covered ledges and tricky terrain, sliding across the knife edge and eventually topping out at around 12:30 pm. 

Laura's feet were very cold so after a food break and a few pictures we headed off for Grays Peak just a short distance away. The straight forward walk to Grays took just over an hour and provided amazing views of the 10 mile and Sawatch mountain ranges blanketed in snow. We chatted with the others on the summit and headed down quickly to grab lunch in Idaho Springs. Back at the car by 3:30, we even made a stop to gather some dirt below an old abandoned mine for Dad's gold panning project! Three peaks per day seems to be our number lately, but what an amazing three to choose. The sun shined all day and the winds were calm. Looking forward to real winter now...